Third-party applications (such as antivirus software, archiving software, and other tools) may load modules into Firefox. Sometimes, these applications load harmful modules that cause Firefox crashes, reduced performance, or compatibility issues. You may not notice that a malicious or unexpected module has been loaded and it may cause problems that appear to be Firefox issues.
The Firefox about:third-party page gives users information about third-party modules that have been injected into Firefox.
Accessing the about:third-party page
Type about:third-party in the address bar and press Enter. You will be taken to the Third-party module Information page. This page shows users a list of modules that have been loaded into the browser, new modules loaded and modules that are slow to load.
If you see a button on top of the page, click on it to reload the page and see more useful information about any modules that are installed.
The button will copy a text version of all data shown in the list, in JSON format, to the clipboard. You can then paste the data to a text file to analyze or add it to a Mozilla Support question.
Module information
The about:third-party page shows the following information for each module:
- Module name.
- Application name/publisher, if provided by the third-party vendor or developer.
- File version.
- Vendor info.
- Number of occurrences.
- Average blocking time, in milliseconds.
- Optional module status icons and other information:
- An unsigned icon (padlock with a red strike over it) will appear next to the name of the module, if the module has not been digitally signed.
- A warning triangle will appear next to the name of a module, if it has been identified as causing a Firefox crash with the current Firefox profile.
- Module type (“IME”, “Shell Extension”).
- An unsigned icon
- A folder button to show the module’s file in Windows Explorer.
- A dropdown button to expand detailed table of loading events which is collapsed by default:
- Target process (the Firefox process type, limited to “browser”, “tab”, or “RDD”).
- Loading duration.
- Background label if it was loaded in a background thread.
- Status (Loaded or Blocked).
Block modules that cause Firefox to crash
There are some third-party modules that may cause Firefox to crash. A warning triangle will be displayed next to its name if a module has been identified as causing a crash before. To check if a third-party module is causing a crash, try temporarily disabling it and see if the problem is fixed.
Follow these steps to manually block the module:
- Type about:third-party in the address bar and press Enter.
- Find the module that you think is causing the crash.
- Click the block icon next to the module.
A dialog box will appear, asking you to restart Firefox in order for the changes to take effect. If this fixes the issue, you can continue to use Firefox without uninstalling the third-party module.
